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_passing_under_the_Brooklyn_Bridge%2c_circa_in_the_1930s_(NH_67808).jpg) USS Tattnall (DD-125) | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 United States | |
| Namesake | Josiah Tattnall III |
| Builder | New York Shipbuilding Corporation,Camden, New Jersey |
| Laid down | 1 December 1917 |
| Launched | 5 September 1918 |
| Commissioned | 26 June 1919 |
| Decommissioned | 15 June 1922 |
| Recommissioned | 1 May 1930 |
| Decommissioned | 17 December 1945 |
| Reclassified | APD-19 on 24 July 1943 |
| Stricken | 8 January 1946 |
| Fate | Sold for scrap, 17 October 1946 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class & type | Wickes-classdestroyer |
| Displacement | 1,090 tons |
| Length | 314 ft4+1⁄2 in (95.822 m) |
| Beam | 30 ft11+1⁄4 in (9.430 m) |
| Draft | 9 ft 4 in (2.84 m) |
| Speed | 35 knots (65 km/h) |
| Complement | 122 officers and enlisted |
| Armament | 4 ×4 in (102 mm)/50 guns, 2 ×3 in (76 mm)/23 guns, 12 ×21 inch (533 mm)torpedo tubes |
USSTattnall (DD–125) was aWickes-classdestroyer in theUnited States Navy duringWorld War II. She was the first ship named forCaptainJosiah Tattnall III.
Tattnall was laid down atCamden, New Jersey, on 1 December 1917 by theNew York Shipbuilding Corporation; launched on 5 September 1918; sponsored by Miss Sarah Campbell Kollock; and commissioned on 26 June 1919.
Following trials off theNew England coast,Tattnall sailed for the easternMediterranean. She arrived atConstantinople on 27 July and, for almost a year, operated inTurkish waters. During that time, she also visited ports inEgypt,Greece,Russia, andSyria transporting passengers and mail. In June 1920, the destroyer began her return voyage to theUnited States. During the voyage home, she was designated DD-125 on 17 July 1920 when the Navy adopted the alphanumeric system of 125 designations. She stopped at ports inItaly andFrance before entering New York harbor on 22 July. Following overhaul,Tattnall put to sea to join thePacific Fleet. After port calls along the southern coast of the United States and at ports inCuba,Nicaragua,Mexico, and thePanama Canal Zone, she reachedSan Diego on 17 December. The warship operated along theCalifornia coast until 15 June 1922, when she was decommissioned and placed in reserve at San Diego.
On 1 May 1930,Tattnall was recommissioned. The warship served with theBattle Force along the west coast until 1931. By 1 July of that year, she had been transferred to theUnited States East Coast for duty with the Scouting Force Destroyers as a unit of Destroyer Division 7.
A year later,Tattnall's activity was curtailed by her assignment to the rotating reserve. On 1 January 1934, the destroyer resumed a more active role with the Fleet when she began a year of duty with the Scouting Force Training Squadron. Following another period of relative inactivity in rotating reserve, she rejoined the Training Squadron late in 1935. During the latter part of 1937, the Training Detachment,United States Fleet, was established; andTattnall and the other units of the Scouting Force Training Squadron joined the new organization. The destroyer continued her training duties until November 1938.
On 17 November 1938, she andJ. Fred Talbott relievedDallas andBabbitt as units of the Special Service Squadron.Tattnall was based in the Canal Zone until the squadron was disbanded on 17 September 1940. The warship, however, continued to operate in theGulf of Mexico andCaribbean Sea out of her home port atPanama. After the United States entered World War II,Tattnall began escorting coastwise convoys in her area of operations, frequently through theWindward Passage between Cuba andHispaniola, a dangerous area during the height of the CaribbeanU-boat blitz. Though she made many sonar contacts anddepth charge attacks,Tattnall registered no confirmed kills.
Early in July 1943, the destroyer escorted her last Caribbean convoy north from the Windward Passage toCharleston, South Carolina. She arrived on the 10th, began conversion to a high-speedtransport at the navy yard, and was redesignatedAPD-19 on 24 July. On 6 September 1943, the day following the 25th anniversary of her launching,Tattnall completed conversion. She finished her shakedown cruise in mid-September. Following post-shakedown repairs and alterations in late September, the high-speed transport began amphibious training—first, atCove Point, Maryland, and later, atFort Pierce, Florida.
In April 1944,Tattnall was designatedflagship of Transport Division (TransDiv) 13, the only high-speed transport division in theAtlantic theater. On 13 April, she departed the U.S. East Coast forOran,Algeria, in company withRoper,Barry,Greene, andOsmond Ingram. TransDiv 13 joined the 8th Fleet at the end of April, andTattnall moved toCorsica to practice for her first assignment, the capture ofElba andPianosa Islands in theTyrrhenian Sea. However, before the invasion and during her training period,Tattnall was called upon to feign a landing nearCivitavecchia,Italy, north ofRome, to draw off German reinforcements headed south to turn back the American forces breaking through atMonte Cassino and heading for Rome. The ruse apparently worked. The reinforcements never reached Monte Cassino; and, on the following day, German radio announced an Allied invasion north of Rome.
On 17 June, the invasion troops went ashore on Elba and Pianosa.Tattnall's boats came under machine gun fire, but suffered no serious damage. After the landings in the Tyrrhenian Sea, the high-speed transport began convoy duty between Italian, Sicilian, andNorth African ports. Following that duty, she resumed amphibious operations, this time with members of the American-Canadian 1st Special Service Force embarked. Their mission was to capture the heavily fortifiedHyeres Islands, located just east ofToulon, and hold them during the main landings in the invasion of southernFrance. On 15 August, the five ships of TransDiv 13 rapidly put 1,600 troops ashore, and the islands were secured within three days. During the next two weeks,Tattnall and her sister transports shuttled reinforcements and supplies into southern France and evacuated Allied wounded and German prisoners of war. For the remainder of the year, the high-speed transport escorted convoys between ports in the Mediterranean Sea.
Tattnall returned to the United States at Norfolk on 21 December and began a month-long availability period before heading for the Pacific. She got underway fromHampton Roads on 31 January 1945. After transiting the Panama Canal early in February and making stops at San Diego, Pearl Harbor, Eniwetok, and Ulithi, the fast transport reached theOkinawa area on 19 April.
The high-speed transport remained in theRyukyus through the end of the month. During that time, she stood guard on several of the screen stations which circled Okinawa to protect the units of the fleet from attack bykamikazes.Tattnall fired at enemy planes several times in the days preceding the night of 29 April and 30 April.
Three red alerts before 0200 failed to materialize into enemy attacks. However, at about 0215,bogies began closing in from the west. A twin-engined plane crossedTattnall's stern from about 3,000 yards, and her40 mm gun crews opened fire. The attacker retired to her starboard quarter with one engine ablaze, only to renew its attack. This time, her gunners finished the job they had begun on its first pass, and it crashed into the sea. Soon thereafter, akamikaze approached the warship from starboard.Tattnall, her engines at full speed, turned hard to port to evade the attacker. It splashed down close to her starboard bow. Debris rained down onTattnall and pierced her above the waterline, but she suffered neither casualties nor serious damage.
The following day,Tattnall departed Okinawa and headed for theMariana Islands and convoy escort duty. She arrived atSaipan on 3 May and returned with a convoy to Okinawa on the 20th. The warship resumed picket duty but experienced no more action like that of the night of 29 April and 30 April. To be sure, her crew stood long watches and, on 25 May, was at general quarters for 18 hours straight. On that day,Barry andRoper were hit bykamikazes.Barry later sank, andRoper was sent to a rear area for repairs.
Early in June,Tattnall was ordered to report for duty with the Philippine Sea Frontier. She stopped at Saipan on 13 June and reached Leyte on the 17th. Through the end of the war and for almost a month thereafter, she conducted patrols in the Philippines and escorted convoys to Ulithi and Hollandia. On 13 September,Tattnall headed back to the United States. After stops at Eniwetok and Pearl Harbor, the fast transport arrived in San Francisco on 30 October.
From there, she was routed north to the Puget Sound Navy Yard and disposition by the Commandant, 13th Naval District.Tattnall was decommissioned at Puget Sound on 17 December 1945. Her name was struck from theNavy list on 8 January 1946. She was sold to the Pacific Metal Salvage Company, ofSeattle, Washington, on 17 October 1946 and scrapped. Her hull was towed toRoyston, British Columbia and beached as part of a breakwater, parts of her hull are still visible in 2009.[1]: 24
Tattnall received threebattle stars for her World War II service.
This article incorporates text from thepublic domainDictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be foundhere.49°39′09″N124°57′00″W / 49.6526°N 124.9499°W /49.6526; -124.9499
